Bestest ‘lympics evah!

At least that’s the official line being touted by Beijing. They are pulling out all the stops so that the two weeks next year when the world is watching will showcase Beijing (and by extension, China) in the best light possible. Whether some of the changes continue on past the Olympics is another issue entirely.

This article highlights quite nicely some of the “bad behaviour” being tackled by Beijing. They’ve even been setting up groups of “morality police” that scour the city watching for offenders and then pointing out the error of the transgressor’s ways. If they don’t comply, then the real police get called in.

Finally, because in China what the Politburo wants, it gets. In order for there to be blue skies and lovely rivers for the Games, for the week running up to and the entire period of the event all factories within 300 kilometres will be shut down and only essential vehicles will be allowed into the city. Of course, there’s no mention as to what sort of “green” initiatives will survive past the Games. My bet is virtually none but maybe I’m just cynical.